Apparatus and method for treating fabrics with liquids



F. GUT 2,036,693 APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TREATING FABRICS WITH LIQUIDS pril 7,t 1936.

Filed Sept. 27, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FOO@ [Ire

ATTORNEY.

Patented Apr. 7, 1936 UNITED STATI-:s PATENT oFFlcE APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TREATING FABRICS WITH LIQUIDS Frederick out, rotowa, N. J., signor to von Vlaanderen Machine Company, Paterson, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application september 27, 1934, ,serial No. 745,763 o 1 i s claims. (ci. 8 19) This invention relates to apparatus for treati ing textile materials, as fabrics, with liquid, and whereas it is herein described and shown with method thus involved accordingly.

One conveyor is wide and the other narrow, which permits supporting both conveyors at each of those intervals where a bend of the wide conl reference to what is known as boil-off" apparatus veyor receives a bend of the narrow conveyor by (to wit, for removing the gum from silk piece a common axial support having enlarged por- 5 goods) it will be understood that it is not nccestions, as sprocket wheels, for the bends of the sarily so limited. As the boiling-off or gum wide conveyor. At each interval where a. bend removing is usually performed the goods is hung of the narrow conveyor receives a bend of the on sticksin a succession of pleats or folds dewide conveyor there is means, substantially wholly' 10 pending into the liquid in a, vat and two men exterior of the passage between the conveyors, to 10 A pass the sticks along and so drag the folds one support them at such bends.

after another through the liquid. According to y Further, according to this invention the upper'- thisvinvention this operation may be performed most portion of the passage has its relatively entirely automatically. under side, formed by a portion of one conveyor,

In carrying out my invention, given a vat conextended into the liquid at a downward incline, 15 taining the liquid of treatment, a sinuous pasand it affords above the liquid means forming a saged conductor having inter-communicating loading platform onto which the fabric may be portions extending laterally (as that term is delivered pleated and in that respect undulated hereafter defined) at different elevations and preparatory tc its entry into the passage and submerged in the liquid is formed by two flex- 'through the liquid. 20

ible conveyors having, submerged in the liquid, In the drawings, portions extending substantially parallel and Fig. 1 is a vertical longitudinal Substantially adapted to receive. the material .between them central section of the improved apparatus, cerand each arranged to form at different elevations tain Darts appearing partially in broken lines;

laterally reaching loops and to have itsloops Fis. 2 is a fragmentary plan, ShOWinB princi- 25 alternate with and be between those of the other Daily the driving instrumentaiities; such portion, the conveyors when moved to pass Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic fragmentary plan of .downward through the liquid lengthwise of them` a conveyor; selves being adapted to convey the material gen- Figs. 4 and 5 are sectional views on lines 4--4 erally lengthwise of itself through the liquid. and 5-5 of Figs. 5 and 4, respectively; and 30 This apparatus, per se, is known. Fig. 6 is a diagram of portions of the conveyors. But in accordancewith my invention the said` Let i designate a suitable vat for the liquid portions of the conveyors are spaced throughout whose level isindicated at 2- their lengths and the material is not at any point 'I'here are two endless exlble conveyors for by them or otherwise subject to vobstruction or ,the material a (here a silk fabric) designated in 35 f any pinching or compressing or the like action Fig. 1 as 3 and 4 and each preferably of the which might set up strains, rubbing or other more or less reticulated type and constructed as harmful effects where a. fine fabric, for instance, follows: 'Iwo endless chains, as 5, are connected is being treated. Instead the conveyance of the at suitable intervals by cross-rods 6 and be' 40 fabric is eifectedand at the same time all obtween the chains, supported by the cross-rods 40 structive and harmful effects, including those and chains, is stretched an endless net 1. o which might otherwise be incident to the slnuous As will appear, each conveyor has ya portion. exform of the conductor, are prevented by providing tendinginto the vat and arranged and supported for entry of the material to the passage in already so as to form at different elevations laterally exundulated form, so that it will thereupon stand tending loops and to have its loops projecting 45 undulated and hence desirably slack in the conreversely to and alternating with those of said ductor and yet be carried along and thereportion of the other conveyor; see Fig. 6 where 'through by the conveyors. Being the first, so the loops are designated 3a and la. Usually each far as Iam aware, to form a series of undulations stretch of (i. e. between the bends in) all the in a fabric to be treated with a liquid and then, loops (except as will appear) will extend actually 50 while maintaining the' undulations thus already. horizontally. but as I d0 not wish to be limited formed, cause the fabric to enter the liquid atv precisely to this condition I have used the term its surface, and then pass through the liquid, laterally, here to be taken to mean relatively to progressively of the undulations I claim the the vertical. Said portions are substantially parallel to each other and here suitably spaced to ad- 65 mit the fabric between them. The latter is to travel generally lengthwise of -itself through the succession of loops and between said portions, and as it moves from stage to stage of the sinuous conductor in eifect formed by said portions each relatively underneath laterally reaching.

stretch of one conveyor will serve to support it while the relatively overlying stretch of the other conveyor serves to confine it from rising as an incident of its tendency to float. The conveyors in the present example move in the direction indicated bythe arrows associated with the fabric,

or so that the travel is progressively downward. The uppermost stretches of the two said portions are here inclined so as to be in part above and in part submerged in the liquid, such stretch of conveyor 3 having its exposed portion extending further laterally from the surface of the liquid than the corresponding part of the inclined stretch of conveyor 4 so that the former :affords a loading platform at 8. Conveyor 4 is here wider than conveyor 3.

The means for supporting the two conveyors is as follows:

First as to the means for supporting the loopforming or vat contained portions'of the conveyors: Near one'end of the vat are journaled supports for the loops each consisting of a` transverse shaft 9 carrying a. pair of small sprockets III spaced to accommodate and suit the spacing of the chains of the narrow conveyor 3 and' a pair of diametrically enlarged portions, as, sprockets II, spaced to accommodate and suit the spacing of the chains of the wide conveyor 4. Thus the conveyors are supported on the one hand, or at the left in Figs. land 6. On the otherv hand, in view of the stated relative widths of the two conveyors, it is obvious that both conveyors cannot be supported with the bends 3b, Fig. 6, (between the loops of conveyor 3) and the extremities or rebendsin the loops of conveyor 4 both on sprockets in each instance on the same shaft or as above described, wherefore I providey supports consisting of transverse rotary shafts I2vhaving sprockets I3 spaced -to accommodate and suit the spacing' of the wider conveyor 4 and semi-circular elements I4, aiiixed to the sides of the vat, affording races (preferably rollerequipped, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5) concentric with the shafts and spaced to accommodateand suit the spacing of the chains of conveyor 3. The

shafts may be journaled in bearings I 2a carried by the elements I4. (Under each stretch of each -chain of each conveyormay be a ledgek I6, at-

tached to one side of the vat, to oppose possible undue sagging of such stretches under the load of the material and steady the motion of the conveyors.) The two conveyors, after passing the lower one of the'two assemblies last describedA and shown in Figs. 4 and 5, are next passed to the left and under an assembly of essentially similar construction (comprising a transverse rotary shaft I1 with sprockets I8 for the chains of the Wide conveyor 4 and quadrant-shaped elements I8 having roller-equipped races 20 for the chains of the narrow conveyor 3, and thence upwardly- Conveyor 3 then extends over sprockets 22 on a transverse rotary driven shaft 2I and thence around sprockets 23 on rotary transverse idler cult. Conveyorl extends over sprockets 25 on .a transverse rotary driven shaft 26 and then around sprockets 21 ona transverse rotary idler shaft 28, completing the circuit, the latter sprockets being so arranged that conveyor 4 leaves clear the loading platform at 8 already indicated.

In any previous construction in which the conductor is formed of two sheet-like conveyors, as here, what may be termed the receiving bends thereof as shown in Fig. 6 were supported, both at the right and left, by transverse guides (as the shafts 9 and I2 and their sprocket wheels) the same as the received bends in that figure, rather than by opposed guides, such as are shown in Fig. ,5, which are bent around the transverse guides and have the opposite margins of the receiving bends engaged therewith; wherefore, the passage through the conductor was interrupted by such guides for the receiving bends so that the guides interferred with the transit of the material through the passage.

The fabric is delivered onto theplatform 8 by a reel 29, preferably elliptical in form so as to cause pleating of the deposited fabric, as indicated at a. It is drawn from the apparatus by which in tinn drives a speed-reduction unit 34 (these parts being shown diagrammatically and not being. necessary to describe in detail), it being suilicient to regard the shaft 35 of the unit 34 here as the driver. Through a sprocket-andchain connection 36 this shaft drives shaft 2| which, through gearing 31, drivesshaft 26. Thus the two conveyors are driven. Throughfa sprocket-and-chain connection 38 connecting a countershaft -39 with shaft 2| such counter-shaft is driven. Through sprocket-and-chain connections 40 the shaft of reel 29 is driven. And through a beltand cone-pulley variable-speed connection 4I connecting the counter-shaft with the shaft of reel 30 the latter is driven.

In this nexample reel 29, due to its elliptical form, causes the fabric to be deposited on the platform in undulations or here successive pleats or folds (which may be of any extent, as much as a yard in length) and as these descend with conveyor 3 to the -surface of the liquid if they bulge, as at arc, and tend to float clear of said conveyor such will be opposed by the overlying stretch of conveyor 4 which will itself act to advance the material. However, it is to be under- 1. The method of treating a fabric with iiquid which consists in forming a series of undulations in the fabric and then, while maintaining the undulations, causing the undulated part of the fabric to enter the liquid at its surface, and thereupon pass through the liquid in a downward sinuous course, progressively of the undulations.

2. The method of treating a fabric with liquid which consists in forminga series of undulations in the fabric and then, while maintaining the undulations, causing the undulated part of the fabric to enter the liquid at its surface at an incline. and thereupon pass through the u aosaeee vliquid in a downward sinuous course, progressively of the undulations.

3. In combination, a liquid-containing vat, a pair of exible conveyors having parts thereof spaced from and substantially parallel with each other and bent to form a bent conductor forming a passage for the textile material to be treated and including laterally extending portions arranged in the liquid in the vat at successive elevations, supporting means past which the conveyors are movable lengthwise of themselves relatively downwardly through the liquid, the uppermost portion of said passage having the relatively under side thereof formed by a portion of one conveyor extending into the liquid 'at a downward incline approaching the horisage of substantially constant width throughout their whole extent and being bent back and forth at successive elevations, means to support said portions at the intervals where the bends of the 4wideconveyor receive those of the narrow conveyor, and means, substantially wholly exterior of said passage, to support said portions at the intervals therein where the bends of the narrow conveyor receive those of the wide conveyor.

5. The method of treating a fabric with liquid which consists in forming a series of undulations in the fabric and then, while maintaining the undulations, causing the undulated part of the fabric to enter the liquid at its surface,

and thereupon pass through the liquid progressively of the undulations in a sinuous course.

6. The method of treating a fabric with liquid which consists in forming a series of undulations in the fabric and then, while maintaining the undulations, causing the undulated part of the fabric to enter the liquid at its surface at an incline, and thereupon pass through the liquid progressively of the undulations in a sin uous course.

FREDERICK GUT. 

